Smoke & Oak Returns to Downtown Long Beach With Whiskey and Dozens of Pitmasters

Downtown Long Beach is about to smell like mesquite and bourbon. The second annual Smoke & Oak BBQ tasting event returns to Promenade Square Park on Sept. 5, bringing dozens of pitmasters, whiskey tastings and live music to the pedestrian-only stretch at 215 E. First St. for an evening run from 4 to 8 p.m.

The tasting, first reported by the Press Telegram, is organized by Axiom Smoked Meats & BBQ, the outfit behind some of Long Beach's biggest food festivals. Axiom grew out of a smoked meats pop-up founded by Ian and Qiana Mafnas before expanding into citywide event production, according to LA Weekly. At Smoke & Oak, Axiom itself will be serving smoked barbecue plates inspired by the Chamorro Islands, including red rice and kelaguen, per the same Press Telegram report.

Tickets can be purchased at axiomproductionsllc.com/events/smoke-and-oak, with prices starting at $92.97, the Press Telegram reports. Third-party vendor Bucket Listers lists a wider range of discounted tiers, from $70.88 for general culinary access up to $113.88 for a pass covering both food and whiskey pairings.

A Lineup Built on Fusion

The event lineup leans heavily into the kind of cross-cultural barbecue that's become a hallmark of the Southern California pitmaster scene. Big Brian's Meats, a longtime festival favorite, will bring pit-grilled tri-tip, spare ribs, smoked brisket tortas and pit-grilled pollo asado. The brand was launched in 2022 by Brian Rodriguez, a former TV editor and film teacher who cashed out his teaching pension to fund what he calls a SoCal Mex Infusion barbecue venture, drawing on four generations of family Mexican-American recipes, according to Longbeachize.

Orange County-based Shourai BBQ will also be part of the lineup, offering a blend of Central Texas pitmaster technique and Japanese flavor. Items like sweet ponzu pork belly burnt ends and kushiyaki-inspired sausages have made the mobile pop-up a regular at Southern California breweries and food festivals, per event photos shared by Monkish Brewing Co. Rounding out the lineup is OC Smokehouse, known for low-and-slow smoked meats, alongside other local barbecue spots.

From Amphitheater to Tasting Venue

Promenade Square Park, the 0.68-acre downtown space hosting this year's tasting, opened in December 2016 on the former footprint of the Long Beach Downtown outdoor amphitheater, according to the City of Long Beach. The park sits along the Downtown Long Beach Alliance's four-block pedestrian-only Promenade corridor, which links 4th Street to Shoreline Village and regularly hosts entertainment activations designed to draw foot traffic to nearby businesses.

Smoke & Oak is a relatively new addition to that corridor's calendar. Axiom introduced the concept to downtown Long Beach with a winter edition, Smoke & Oak: A Fall BBQ & Whiskey Affair, in December 2025, establishing the event's signature pairing of regional pitmasters with spirit distillers, as Longbeachize reported at the time.

A Smaller Sibling to a Massive Spring Festival

The September tasting is intentionally intimate compared to Axiom's flagship event, the Long Beach BBQ Festival. That spring gathering, held in May 2026 at Rainbow Lagoon, drew more than 13,000 attendees and 100 vendors, making it Southern California's largest barbecue gathering, according to Axiom Productions. Axiom also produces Long Beach Burger Week and Long Beach Black Restaurant Week, part of a growing portfolio that Hoodline previously reported has made Axiom a driving force in Long Beach's culinary event scene.

Axiom's Long Beach festivals also partner with the Noah's Arc Foundation, a youth-focused non-profit co-founded by former NBA player Joakim Noah and Cecilia Rodhe, which receives charitable proceeds from event sales, per LA Weekly. The foundation uses sports and arts programming to support youth in underserved communities.

Part of a Broader Barbecue Boom

Smoke & Oak arrives amid active movement in Long Beach's craft barbecue scene, where pop-ups have increasingly graduated into permanent storefronts. Brother's Keeper BBQ opened on Fourth Street in February, following a path Hoodline documented in its earlier coverage of pitmaster Mo Stewart's storefront debut. Local pitmasters often rely on food festivals and outdoor pop-ups like Smoke & Oak to build a following before taking the leap into brick-and-mortar spaces.